Women are paid just £380,000 on average over their lifetimes compared with £643,000 for men, according to official figures that lay bare the scale of Britain’s gender pay gap. The figures in the Office for National Statistics’ Human Capital Estimates report revealed huge inequality between men and women even at the highest levels of educational attainment. It said women with a master’s or PhD degree still made one-third less over their lifetimes than men with the same qualifications.

Women aged 26 to 35 years with higher degrees have average lifetime earnings of £803,000, whereas men of the same age with undergraduate level qualifications have average lifetime earnings of around £1,160,000,” the ONS said on Monday. It said there had been a small improvement over the last 15 years: “The gap in average lifetime earnings for men and women has narrowed, with women now receiving, on average, 59% of men’s average lifetime earnings; this is up from 56% in 2004.” The findings are contained in an ambitious attempt by the ONS to assess Britain’s entire “human capital” in financial terms. It said that even after adjusting for hours worked, women were paid about a fifth less than men over their lifetimes.